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The Baggara or Baqqarah (Arabic: البقارة) are a nomadic Bedouin people inhabiting Africa from between Lake Chad and the Nile, in the states of Sudan (particularly Darfur), Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic. They are also known as Shuwa Arabs. They are cattle-herders, migrating seasonally between grazing lands in the wet season and river areas in the dry season. They are mostly speakers of the Shuwa dialect of Arabic.

Origins and divisions

Most are Muslims, thought to be partly descendants of Arab tribes who settled the region primarily from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, descendants of the Juhayna group of Arabs that trace their ancestry to Libya. Those Juhayna who moved south where rainfall was more plentiful, such as south of the Marrah Mountains, took up the herding of cattle and became known as the Baggara, literally "those of the cow" or "cattle people". Their kinspeople who stayed north remained Abbala, "camel-men".

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Posts: 8889 | Registered: May 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Doug M:

How about the Baggara? Everything I have seen states that they are ARABS, but if you look at their homeland it is ALL in INNER AFRICA. Many of the Janjaweed are said to originate from tribes of the Baggara. Seems to me that indeed many people mistake the ANCIENT nomadic way of life as being a sign of ARABIZATION. Nomadism is nothing but another form of PASTORALISM which EVERYONE knows is INDIGENOUS to Africa. Likewise, there are MANY PURE BLOOD Africans who have ADOPTED pastoralist lifestyles surrounding CAMELS rather than CATTLE. These groups, like the RENDILLE peoples, are related to other pastoralist groups like the Massai. Unfortunately, many people dont understand that the DESERTIFICATION of Northern Africa has FORCED people to ADAPT many traits that seem SIMILAR to the ARABS but are NOT Arabic. For example, the ANCIENT clothing of the Egyptian peasant is seen all over Africa, yet many may mistake it as some form of ARABIZED dress, when it isnt.

But anyway, the information about the Baggara seem quite odd and does not seem to reflect any TRUE Arab identity. Of course, maybe SOME of these ARAB claims trace back to the ANCIENT connections between the cultures of SOUTH Arabia and Sudan, which indeed would be a LOGICAL fact. However, the ANCIENT Southern tribes of Arabia were much more SIMILAR physically to their African brethren, than those tribes most often identified with ARABS today. Unfortunately most modern scholars arent RIGOROUS enough in their research to POINT OUT such subtleties in the histories of these people and places.

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Originally posted by Underpants Man:

..."Arab" is not a race.

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Well, try telling that to the 'Arab' Sudanese who claim to be a different 'race' from the peoples they rape and slaughter!

Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Israel:

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Originally posted by Yonis:

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Israel wrote:
Hence, East Africa has some deep issues. West Africans were different because their form of Islam was different, more "Africanized" because the desert , I suppose, was a buffer zone. Therefore, the Africans developed Islam in their own way, and the slave trade with the Arabs wasn't as devastating as on the East Coast of Africa.

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How different? How did Islam in West Africa differ from the rest of Islam the rest of Muslims believed in? And are you seriously trying to tell me that west african slave trade didnt have as much impact on modern life than East African? East African former slaves same as European former slaves of are completly integrated in the middle East, but i can't say the same about West Africans in the new world. We should talk about it rather than "arab" (rather berber) slave trade in that region, in comparison to East Africa as you claim disastrous.

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I am not against your ancestry, but these guys were pretending like they weren't African. They were kinda perhaping pretending that they weren't even Black!

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aaah bullshit, how do you define acting "black"? They know they are Africans , most people from zanzibar have Persian ancestry and there is nothing wrong to acknowledge that, but i doubt any people from zanzibar have ever denied they were from africa, this is just onother case of Americans trying to lecture how a "black" should behave.

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Yonis,

what the HELL is your problem? I have noticed that you most definitely have a problem. I don't know what it is, but maybe you got a little soul searching to do. First and foremost, you can read Edward Blyden's book called "Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race"(something like that). He was from the Americas, went to West Africa, and conversed with alot of West African Muslims. He is the one who claimed that Islam in West Africa was "Africanized". So read the book, do a little research, and only then will you be qualified to discuss this with me.......

Concerning the slave trade, I WAS NOT SPEAKING OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE! I was speaking of the Saharan slave trade. I already stated that there was an impact upon West Africa concerning slavery, but I said that it was not as bad as the East African slave trade, got it? I am talking about the Arabian trade in slaves, NOT THE EUROPEAN TRADE, UNDERSTAND? East Africa was much more accessible to the Arabs and Persians than West Africa. And in West Africa, Black rulers governed the "Berbers" many times throughout West African history. Read Sheikh Anta Diop's book, "Precolonial Black Africa": he speaks on it. I can't say the same thing for East Africa(and when I say East Africa, I am speaking specifically about the Swahili Coast). Many times, the Swahili rulers were half-black, half-arab. Therefore, the cultural implications and circumstances concerning their rule was different. I remembering reading specifically in Ibn Battuta's account of West Africa that in Mali one of the local governors(or whatever) despised "white men(i.e. the Berbers and Arabs)" and had nothing but contempt for them. Is there a similar situation in Swahilian history? There might be, but I don't know. Perhaps you can tell me Yonis! Therefore, since you don't know(I admit at this point that I am assuming that you don't know, but perhaps you can prove me wrong.....), don't cast off my thesis as though I don't know what I am talking about!.........

Concerning the Swahilian "ancestry", like I said before, WATCH BILL GATES'S DOCUMENTARY, "THE WONDERS OF THE AFRICAN WORLD"(I think that is the name of it.........go to your local library and watch it!). Once you have watched the documentary, THEN you can tell me that what I said is b.s. But until you watch it, I don't care what you think about anything! Watch it! Then you will see how some of the "half-castes" try to distinguish themselves from the rest of the people. The shame that people feel concerning the fact that they were formerly enslaved............SO BEFORE YOU CUSS ME OUT, WATCH THE FILM HOMEBOY! THEN, AND ONLY THEN, do you have a right to speak your opinion to me! I saw what I saw. ANYBODY WHO SAW IT CANNOT NOT SIMPLY PASS OVER WHAT WAS SAID...........

In case that isn't enough, read V.S. Naipual's account of his journey to Africa. Off the coast of Kenya, there was a kid that told him, "'THese people are mad at us. They say that we stole Black Men, and took them to the sea to be sold as slaves.' I looked at this kid, with dark brown skin and curly hair, and I realized that here, being Arab was not based on skin color: it is simply a state of mind."

There you have it Yonis. Review the information I have provided before you tell me that it is bull---t. Salaam

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Posts: 826 | From: U.S.A. | Registered: Jun 2006  |  IP: Logged |